Radiohead artist reveals secret ‘In Rainbows’ cover art

Radiohead designed artwork for ’In Rainbows’ but decided to ditch it just before the album’s download-only release on October 10.

Speaking today (October 24), artist Stanley Donwood, the band’s regular visual collaborator and university friend of Thom Yorke, confirmed he had designed artwork for the new album but the group had decided to hold it back.

“There was one [album cover] but because it was an mp3 we decided not to use it,” he told Radio 4’s ’Today’ programme. “It was a last minute decision, it was all ready to go but ended up being left on the laptop. What did you miss out on? Well it’s very colourful – I’ve finally embraced colour! It’s a rainbow but it is very toixc, it’s more like the sort of one you’d see in a puddle.”

“I paid no pence for the album,” he declared. “I was just checking the website was working. If you paid nothing the screen flashed up ‘we value your custom, you’re in a queue’, whereas if you paid for it you went straight to the download code, just a bit of irony that no one got as normal.”

To make up for the shortfall of ’In Rainbows’ artwork NME.COM actually designed some of its own.